Class VIII – NCERT – Social Science Chapter 9

History Women Caste and Reform

Question 1:
What social ideas did the following people support?
Rammohun Roy Dayanand Saraswati Veerasalingam Pantulu Jyotirao Phule
Pandita Ramabai Periyar
Mumtaz Ali Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar
Solution:
Rammohun Roy: Supported the banning of the practice of 'Sati' Dayanand Saraswati: Supported
Widow remarriage
Veerasalingam Pantulu: Supported Widow remarriage Jyotirao Phule: Supported equality among
castes
Pandita Ramabai: Supported Women's Education,Economic Independence for women and set up
widow homes
Periyar: Supported equality for untouchables. Mumtaz Ali: Supported Women's Education
Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar: Supported Widow remarriage

Question 2:
State whether true or false:
(a) When the British captured Bengal they framed many new laws to regulate the rules
regarding marriage, adoption, inheritance of property, etc.
Solution:
True

(b) Social reformers had to discard the ancient texts in order to argue for reform in social
practices.
Solution:
False

(c) Reformers got full support from all sections of the people of the country.
Solution:
False

(d) The Child Marriage Restraint Act was passed in 1829..

Solution:
False

Question 3:
How did the knowledge of ancient texts help the reformers promote new laws?

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Class VIII – NCERT – Social Science Chapter 9
History Women Caste and Reform

Solution:
Whenever the reformers wished to challenge a practice that seemed harmful, they tried to find a
verse or sentence in the ancient sacred texts that supported their point of view. They then suggested
that the practice as it existed at present was against early tradition. Thus, the knowledge of ancient
texts helped the reformers promote new laws.

Question 4:
What were the different reasons people had for not sending girls to school?
Solution:
When Vidyasagar in Calcutta and other reformers in Bombay set up schools for girls many people
had different reasons for not sending girls to school.
(i) They feared that schools would take girls away from home, thereby preventing them from doing
their domestic duties.
(ii) They felt that travelling through public places in order to reach school would have a corrupting
influence on girls.
(iii) They felt that girls should stay away from public spaces.

Question 5:
Why were Christian missionaries attacked by many people in the country? Would some people
have supported them too? If so, for what reasons?
Solution:
In the nineteenth century, Christian missionaries were attacked by many people in the country
because they suspected that they were involved in forced conversion of poor and tribal people from
Hinduism to Christianity.
They also started setting up schools for tribal groups and lower caste children. These
children were trained to find a footing in the changing world. Soon the poor left the villages and
started looking for jobs in the cities. People who looked down on the lower caste did not like the
progress of this section of people. Social reformers would have supported the missionaries for their
work against social evils

Question 6:
In the British period, what new opportunities opened up for people who came from castes that
were regarded as “low”?
Solution:
The British period saw the rise of the cities. Many of the poor began leaving their villages and towns
to look for jobs that were opening up in the cities. As the cities were growing, there was a great
demand for labour-labour for digging drains, laying roads, constructing buildings, working in
factories and municipalities, etc.
This required coolies,diggers,carriers,bricklayers,sewage cleaners. This demand for labour was met
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History Women Caste and Reform

by the population migrating from the villages and towns.

There was also the demand for labour in the various plantations, both within the country and abroad.
The army too offered opportunities for employment.
Many of these migrating people belonged to the low castes. For them, the cities and the plantations
represented the opportunity to get away from the oppressive hold that upper- caste landowners
exercised over their lives and the daily humiliation they suffered.

Question 7:
How did Jyotirao the reformer justify his criticism of caste inequality in society?
Solution:
Jyotirao Phule developed his own ideas about the injustices of caste society. He did not accept the
Brahmins’ claim that they were superior to others, since they were Aryans.Phule argued that the
Aryans were foreigners, who came from outside the subcontinent and defeated and subjugated the
native Indians.As the Aryans established their supremacy, they began looking at the Indians as
inferior and low caste people. According to Phule, the "upper" castes had no right to their land and
power. In reality, the land belonged to indigenous people, the so-called low castes.
Phule opined that there existed a golden age when warrior-peasants tilled the land and ruled the
Maratha countryside in just and fair ways

Question 8:
Why did Phule dedicate his book Gulamgiri to the American movement to free slaves?
Solution:
Jyotirao Phule wrote Gulamgiri in 1873. It means slavery.While writing this book,he was
concerned with all forms of inequalities and injustices existing in society -
whether it was the plight of the upper-caste women, the miseries of the labourerers, or the humiliation
of the low castes. By dedicating his book Gulamgiri to the American movement to free slaves, he
linked the conditions of the black slaves in America with those of
the "lower" castes in India. This comparison also contains an expression of hope that one day, like the
end of slavery in America, there would be an end to all sorts of caste discriminations in Indian
society.

Question 9:
What did Ambedkar want to achieve through the temple entry movement?
Solution:
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar started a temple entry movement in 1927 which was participated by his Mahar
caste followers. Brahmin priests were outraged when the lower castes used water from the temple
tank. Dr. Ambedkar led three such movements for temple entry between 1927 and 1935. His aim was
to make everyone see the power of caste prejudices within the society.

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History Women Caste and Reform

Question 10:
Why were Jyotirao Phule and Ramaswamy Naicker critical of the national movement? Did
their criticism help the national struggle in any way?
Solution:
Both Jyotirao Phule and Ramaswamy Naicker were critical of the national movement as they could
barely see any difference between the preachers of anti-colonialism and the colonial masters. Both,
according to them, were outsiders and had used power for subjugating and oppressing the
indigenous people. Phule believed that though the upper- caste leaders were then asking people all
over the country to unite for fighting the British, once the Britishers had left, they would continue
with their oppressive caste policies, thereby causing divisions amongst the very people they were
trying to unite. He believed that they only wished for unity to serve their purposes, and once the
purposes had been served, the divisions would creep in again.
Naicker's experience in the Congress showed him that the national movement was not free from the
taint of casteism. At a feast organised by nationalists, the seating arrangements followed caste
distinctions, i.e., the lower castes were made to sit at a distance from the upper castes. This convinced
him that the lower castes had to fight their battle themselves. Their criticism did lead to rethinking
and some self criticism among the upper-caste nationalist leaders. This in turn helped to strengthen
the national struggle, as free from prejudices of caste, religion and gender, the leaders could unite and
concentrate their attentions upon the single aim of overthrowing the colonial administration.

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